MORRIS COUNTY -- David Parks silently wept and his ex-wife, Laurie Parks, looked away in grief when a prosecutor today showed a jury a photo of their daughter's severed legs during closing arguments in the murder trial of defendant James Zarate.

The limbs of 16-year-old Jennifer Parks were sliced off at the knees by Zarate and his brother, Jonathan, so they could her stuff her stabbed, battered body into a trunk, Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Robert Lane told the jury.

Robert Sciarrino/The Star-LedgerLaura Parks, mother of the murder victim, reaches out to her husband, David Parks, during closing arguments in the trial of accused murderer James Zarate today.

The motive was revenge: James Zarate, now 18, used to bully Parks daily and hated her because he got into trouble over it, Lane said. In 2003, Zarate was caught smashing a window of Laurie Parks' car, got removed from Jennifer's classes and moved away to live with his mother in Garfield. So, when James was visiting his brother in 2005, the siblings decided to lure Parks over from next door and kill her, Lane contended.

"In his mind, this was payback. 'You got me transferred (out of classes). You got me moved away from my brother. Now I'm going to get you' -- and he did," said Lane, jabbing a finger toward Zarate for emphasis. "Brutality of this nature, savagery of this nature -- inhuman. It happened for a reason, and that's the reason."

But defense attorney Joseph Ferrante presented a polar-opposite scenario: Jonathan Zarate was the sole killer -- and James had nothing to do with the slaying and dismemberment and is only guilty of trying to help discard Jennifer's body.

"It is such a stretch to believe this little girl was killed because of a rock-throwing incident two years earlier," Ferrante told the jury. "It is such a reach, it's really incredible."

Jonathan, now 22, who said he killed Parks alone, was convicted by a jury in December of Parks' slaying and sentenced the following month to life in prison.

Ferrante argued the state's case is based largely on the word of key witness Vladimir Basilio, now 20, of Clifton, who was caught with the Zarates trying to throw the trunk containing Parks' remains into a river. Basilio testified for the prosecution that he was told by James how the brothers planned and executed the murder for revenge.

On cross-examination, Ferrante tried to discredit Basilio for initially lying twice to police, and he tried to establish that Basilio made up a statement implicating James Zarate to gain release from a juvenile detention center. Basilio has pleaded guilty in the case to conspiracy and hindering apprehension and is awaiting sentencing to an expected three years of probation.

"This girl's death has been vindicated" by Jonathan's conviction, Ferrante said. "The only reason James Zarate is here is because of what Basilio said. There's nothing else. Nothing else puts him in that room (the basement). Basilio knows he's not getting punished. He got over like a fat rat in this case. Like a fat rat."

But Lane said there was no plea deal and Basilio finally told the truth in his third statement.

"This case does not rise and fall with Vladimir Basilio at all. There's so much more," he said.

Lane noted medical examiner Sunandan Singh testified the slaying had to have been committed by at least two people, due to the number and nature of injuries Parks suffered. She was pummeled with fists to her face, stabbed with a knife in the neck and abdomen and beaten on the back with a metal pole. She suffered defensive wounds to her hand from grabbing the knife and had a bandanna stuffed down her throat to muffle her screams, Lane told the jury.

"This was not a one-man attack," Lane said.

Ferrante, however, noted the "cocksure" Singh grudgingly conceded under a withering cross-examination it was possible there was only one killer.

Robert Sciarrino/The Star-LedgerAccused murderer James Zarate mouths words to his mother today during a break in closing arguments by Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Robert Lane and defense attorney Joseph Ferrante.

James Zarate's statement to police also was full of lies, Lane argued. James told police he was sleeping upstairs when Jonathan killed and dismembered Parks downstairs, and that he only became involved when Jonathan awoke him to help move a trunk. Asked if he knew what was in the trunk, James said he assumed it contained the dead body of Parks.

"Why would you possibly in a million years think Jennifer Parks was in that trunk - unless you helped put her there," said Lane, his voice rising in anger.

Ferrante contended James' statement, in which he tells on his brother, was the truth.

Lane also pointed to James' statement that after carrying the trunk outside he went back to sleep until 9:30 a.m. -- on the same couch. But his former stepmother, Ligia Molina, testified she awoke at 6 a.m. and only her own son, Jonathan Sandoval, was asleep in the living room. Sandoval also testified that when he awoke Zarate was nowhere in that upper living room.

Ferrante noted Molina and Sandoval said they never specifically looked to see if James was on one of the other two couches.

Lane also noted a fingerprint of James Zarate's was on a garbage bag containing Parks' severed legs, and a wad of chewing gum found in a different trash bag with bloody items from cleaning up the scene contained his DNA.

Ferrante noted prosecution witnesses testified there was no way to tell when the fingerprint was put on the bag - it could have been weeks earlier - and no way to tell how long the gum was in the other trash bag.

"It's not something that you can say, with any degree of certainty, is an 'Aha' in this case. That's why I say it's a stretch," Ferrante said.

After hearing four hours of closing arguments, the jury received lengthy instructions from Judge Salem Ahto on how to consider the various charges in the case, and one female juror was selected as an alternate. The remaining jury of seven women and five men are expected to begin deliberations Wednesday.